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| - Fact Check: Heartbreaking photo of injured child from Syrian war shared as victim of Russia-Ukraine conflict
Just one day after Russia invaded Ukraine, a photo of a child with blood on its face went viral on social media. Meanwhile, India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the picture to be old.
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India Today Fact Check
This photograph is at least four years old and has nothing to do with the ongoing invasion. It first appeared on the internet in January 2018. Several news outlets shared the image in 2018, stating it to be from Syria.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, social media has been flooded with videos and images of war. Some of these images and videos, of course, have nothing to do with the crisis at all. One such image is of a child with blood on their face has been shared by a number of social media users in the last 36 hours.
People, mostly on Twitter and some on Facebook, shared the image alongside captions like, “One of the most heartbreaking images from the Russia/Ukraine war. Putin must end this for humanity’s sake.”
Archived versions of some similar posts can be seen here and here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the claim to be false. This image is more than four years old and is not related to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
AFWA Probe
We performed a reverse image search and found the viral image on an advertising website that carried several images of some wounded children. The images were published on the site on November 9, 2018.
We weren’t able to find an authentic source of the image, at first. So we tried searching for images with relevant keywords and found a high-resolution photograph of the viral image. A Twitter user posted a few images of the war-affected child in July 2019, including the viral one.
Only in this year 140 children killed in northwest #Syria. 7 children killed YESTERDAY in #Mhambel village. What the value of victory in #war when innocent children killed ??? They are our children, my and your !!!
#NeverATarget #ENDViolence #NotATarget #ChildrenUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/Q0bNsxCBOv — Anzhela (@ANZHELA_YAN) July 8, 2019
The user claimed these images were from Syria’s Mhambel village where seven children were killed. We then tried to get more information by reverse-searching the high-resolution one.
That took us to a report published by the BBC on January 6, 2018, about the war that was going on in Syria. The BBC report noted that at least 25 civilians were killed in an airstrike.
The Irish Sun also used this image in a report about the Syrian war alongside a caption that reads “An injured child in a Syrian hospital” giving credit to the AFP.
Hence, it became clear that the photo of the child was not from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine but from the Syrian war.
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